Doctor Who intro Peter Capaldi version - cross stitch design

This design was drawn originally with Anchor colours in my program. Use anchor threads to get the closest match. I used a conversion chart to get the DMC numbers.

Please let me know if any colours are off and I will amend them in the chart.

Since this one is a bit complicated Im going to post some close ups to help with sewing

Top Left

Top Right

Bottom Left

Bottom Right

Hello everyone
This is a large design based on the new Doctor who intro. They made a new intro sequence for the new doctor Peter Capaldi. I think this new sequence is fabulous. Of course they could not keep the intro from the previous series because it was very representative of the Tardis getting beat up in the midsts of time and space which leads to Matt Smiths doctor regeneration and has not as much relevance to the new season.

I have already had several friends asking me to sew this for them. One of my friends wants this as a large totebag to take her university books to class and another friend wants this as a hanging for his door with his name underneath it. Ok so hes 24 but I guess you are never too old for a door sign. :)

Hi everyone
This week I wanted to draw a peaceful, thoughtful design. I went with a silhouette style because of its simplicity, too much colour inn the design made it feel cluttered and buzy. I tried to add colour in the form of hair extensions, small details such as an earring but every time my friends came back that the simplest unadorned version was the one they liked.

The colours above are a suggestion, however theres no reason why the black has to be black like a shadow. If you wanted you could mix it up and have it a colour to match the room you want to display your sewing in.

Friday, 19 June 2015

China blue flower motif

Colour

DMC Number

Anchor Number

Blue

3746

1030

Colour

DMC Number

Anchor Number

Blue

3746

1030

Light blue

996

1090

Hi there,
This time I have a couple of card sized china blue motifs. I drew these designs after a visit to my local museum where there was a display of some beautiful blue and white china pieces.
I loved the colour scheme but found that the detailed landscapes on some of them would be daunting to sew so decided to do a couple of simple motifs which show the colour and theme without being too complicated.

I'd really like to make these designs into little coasters for my nan to use with her lovely china tea cups. :)

Since these designs use few colours will allow you to change the thread you cross stitch the design in very easily. I think the blue flower would look nice in another bold colour such as orange or bright pink.

This design was drawn originally with
Anchor colours in my program. Use anchor threads to get the closest
match. I used a conversion chart to get the DMC numbers.

Please let me know if any colours are
off and I will amend them in the chart.

This is a cross stitch design for Rainbow Dash from Equestria girls in her outfit for the fall formal.
Rainbow Dash is the most colourful character in the whole show with her hair and outfit having so many colours included. Its going to take a whole load of threads to effectively sew this design.

I have been checking out the Equestria Girls Dolls this week. My favorite variation is the Rainbow Dash Radical Hair doll. What a fitting character to have a whole bunch of colourful hair accessories? I know Rainbow Dash isn't a girly enough character to be really into hair styling but seeing my Niece having so much fun platting the different hair colours to make a whole bunch of new patterns really looked great fun. She even got her Rarity Pony to convince her Rainbow Dash doll to have a new hair style for the ball and did up her hair with every single one of the clips that come in the set.

Rainbow Dash and characters from Equestria Girls and My little Pony: Friendship is Magic belong to Hasbro. This is fan art for other cross stitching fans of the show to share.I claim no rights to the character.

Friday, 12 June 2015

Kids counting animals: 12 Pawprints

This design was drawn originally with Anchor colours in my cross stitch design program. Use Anchor threads to get the closest match to the picture. I used a conversion chart to get the DMC numbers.

Please let me know if any colours are off and I will amend them in the chart.

The final installment of kids counting animals. This time its twelve pawprints. These are pawprints which could be from a cat or a dog or even something more exotic like a tiger or a lion.
So why not stitch this for your kids to count and see what they think has passed by?

For the other instalments of kids animal counting cross stitch designs check out the links below:

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Green, blue and yellow cross stitch flower border

*I am assuming the inside of the flowers will remain unstitched but they can be filled in with white if you are using a dark coloured aida.

This design was drawn originally with Anchor colours in my cross stitch design program. Use Anchor threads to get the closest match to the picture. I used a conversion chart to get the DMC numbers.

Hello everyone this week I decided to draw a little flower border. This could be used for a Photo frame or just to surround a smaller design on another piece of work.

If you would like to make the frame smaller then the separate leaves in the middle of each edge can be easily removed. The gaps between the main corner pieces and the smaller leaf can be widened to make the border larger or even adding a repeat of each leaf can help to make the design much wider for a larger picture.

The blue on the flower outlines can easily be switched out for any other thread you fancy too. Fancy some pink flowers? No problem since theres no shading just find a colour that you like or that goes with the picture you wish to sew this frame for and go for it. :)

Bear in mind that the top and bottom edges of the border are slightly curved so may take up a little more space than first thought. However I think this is a worthwhile addition and makes this border different to the many very straight edged ones which are available.

Kids counting animals: 11 slimy snails cross stitch design

This design was drawn originally with Anchor colours in my cross stitch design program. Use Anchor threads to get the closest match to the picture. I used a conversion chart to get the DMC numbers.

Please let me know if any colours are off and I will amend them in the chart.

Another Instalment of Kids animal counting, I forgot to draw them all in order but no matter. This is 11 slimy snails. This design uses french knots for the eyes of the snails but feel free to use seed beads or just stop at the backstitch if you don't feel confident with french knots.
Best of all this design uses only 4 colours of threads! The Letters can be any colour if you want to stitch it to match other decorations in a room. I chose this shade of green because it reminded me of the leaves in my garden where I normally find the snails hanging out.

I had so much fun drawing this design it was nice to imagine where all of the cute little snails would crawl about on the letters and have the L have a little bit bitten out of it. :)
This design was inspired by a friend of mine who just loves snails, she has sculptures of snails all over her house and even had a pet African land snail. Its surprisingly big compared to the teeny ones which live in my garden.
I think that this design may make a really cute picture to go on my friends wall if we can find a space between all of the other snail items. When making this one up I'd definitely use a nice light wooden frame so that the frame does not drown out the colours in the cross stitching itself.

If you want to see more of the Kids animal counting series check out the links here:

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Since it is spring I have been having a nice tidy up of my sewing/crafting area. Many crafters will know that a tonne of crafting stash and tools comes with the hobby since you never know if you will need a bit of this or that in your latest project.

So heres a few of the ways I store my crafting stash.

My drawers:

These Drawers are my favourite way to store my crafting stash. I got them flat packed from Jysk a few years ago. Each drawer is labelled with a different type of item to aid in organisation.
The drawers each come out of the unit for ease of access to items inside. I just love the way I can take out my whole drawer and rummage around in each basket to find the item I want. Its also handy if I want to take all my threads downstairs since I can just carry the whole basket around the house.

The drawers are identical which did not help at first since each drawer can go in any location in the drawers I could not simply remember what location each item is in. To solve this issue I cross stitched a bunch of labels and pinned them onto the fabric lining.

I will be posting up some new designs for my labels soon I'd love to update then now I have more experience in designing and cross stitching.

My step mum loved the idea of this storage but could not find an equivalent set of drawers in shops near her so emulated the same effect by getting a deep bookshelf and several boxes which fit into the shelves. However she has a much larger stitchy stash than I do so a much larger collection of boxes. Theres still time for me to pick up more bits and pieces though.

Here's a little example of whats in a drawer. Its not the most organised of places. :)

Shoe rack:

After putting in the shelving units I still wanted to make the most of the space on top of them. Just piling extra boxes on top didn't make things very accessible and sometimes lead to me buying doubles of certain items just because they were hidden away in a box on the bottom of the stack.
The cheapest method I found to increase storage space on these furniture top areas is to buy flat, solid shoe racks. Each of the racks I have here were £5. The shortness of the racks means that when placed on top of my existing furniture it doesn't get too high and I have lots more space to put more boxes and baskets of bits and bobs. Folding table:

I am lucky enough to have a whole room for my crafting but having a large table in there for cutting out wider pieces of fabric took up most of the space I had in the room. Since I make teddy bears and cross stitch most of the time it wasn't always needed to be so big. The ideal solution for me was my lovely folding table that I found in a charity shop. One half is folded against the wall until its needed and I can pull it out again.
One thing to be wary of is to ensure that any folding table you get is very sturdy. It will certainly be terrible for it to collapse or wobble while cutting out fabric!

For anyone who is wondering that rocking horse in the back of the picture is my very own Dobbin the donkey. Hes actually over 30 years old and has been well loved by many kids in our family. However now hes missing an ear, patches of fur including mane and tail and is rather dirty. The plastic frame for him is actually quite sturdy so one of my next projects will be to make a cute new cover for it so that it can maybe last another 30 years with the new generation of kids in my family.

Folding Storage box and stool:

This storage box is a very useful piece of kit. Even when its empty its strong enough to be sat or stood on or even used as a footstool. This box is currently full (I mean absolutely ram packed) of fur and fabric scraps .
When its not needed the whole box folds away into the lid making it really easy to store away. I like to have it up around the room because it helps me reach my high shelves.Folding Laundry baskets and storage baskets:

So readers, you may see a pattern by now, I really love foldable items. It really helps to increase space or storage as my stash requires.
My big baskets are simply foldable laundry baskets. When I have used up part of my stash and have an empty basket I can just fold it and tuck it away until I inevitably buy lots more fabric.

The best thing is that since Laundry baskets are made for clothing they are generally kind to fabrics unlike some ornamental boxes I have owned which have caused snags. :(

Sewing item Baskets:

Heres one last basket in my crafting area. This one is just a small one to contain several essential items I need while using the sewing machine such as pins. Its very useful to have them all handy and in one place.
Next time I'll tell you about small items which I find rather useful in my crafting stash. Items I just cannot do without. :)
See you all then
Gemma